Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced reading copy. Jess and Josh follow the classic enemies to lovers trope and it is fun to watch their feelings and perspectives shift and evolve from college to being colleagues as analysts. What’s different about this story is that the enemy bit lies in political beliefs expressed in a college debate seminar. Josh is a privileged white man who was raised in Connecticut and Jess is a black woman raised by a single father in Lincoln, Nebraska. While Josh is firm in his beliefs and understanding of politics and their effects on the economy, Jess finds herself navigating very different waters. She never quite fit into the black community, as she was a very small minority growing up in Lincoln and had no black friends and no influence of a mother figure. Her understanding of the black experience in America is limited to her father’s lessons and observations. She feels like she must “say something” anytime she hears something or is privy to a belief that perpetuates stereotypes and stigmas. It was difficult for me to read the endless debates and squabbles leading up to and during the 2016 political landscape. I liked that this wasn’t a fluffy romance, but the level at which the economics, politics, analyst work, and social commentary was addressed was so advanced that it probably won’t be accessible to readers without experience in those areas.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although I am a white woman, I am the adoptive mother of two Latino children - now young adults. Since they were toddlers, I have been involved in social justice work because I now see clearly how differently people of color are treated in our society. So Jess and Josh were real characters to me. I could very much identify with Jess and her views on these topics. I wanted to hate Josh because he is a Trumper and thinks everything in the world is about individual meritocracy. HAH!!!! I have lost several relationships and friends due to our diverse views on this topic. Yet, until I was 40 years old, I was Josh. I wondered if the couple's relationships could withstand their idealogical viewpoints. Read the book and find out. I loved this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy to review. I"m unsure how to summarize my experience reading this. My overall emotions reading this was confusion as to why she continued to interact with him much less be romantically involved. This is advertised as enemies to lovers but much of their conflict surrounds his beliefs and actions related what's important to her. He is obviously hurtful and ignorant...I got the impression this was supposed to be a "can love be enough?" story. And the ending left me thinking "what??"

I liked the beginning. There were some funny parts but most of it didn't make sense and I didn't like the ending at all.

Tough book to rate, more like 2.5. I tried to find the good in it but I don't understand why Jess failed to dump Josh in the first chapters of the book. WHY? I did appreciate the viewpoint of Jess trying to break into a white, male dominated field but Josh just took it out of a good book for me. I also liked her interaction with her father - having to meet his ideal while trying to figure out what she wanted. Josh was horrible.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story! Ms. Rabess builds very believable and relatable characters with strong dialogue and realistic character arcs. I would definitely look for future titles from this author!

This book was interesting, intriguing, and heartfelt. I loved it and everything that it stood for. I can’t wait to read the next book from the author.

A beautiful showcase of perspective. Still thinking of “Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality.” line and how I INSTANTLY highlighted it.

This was an intelligent and thought provoking take on an “enemies to friends” romance with layers of race/ gender/ socioeconomic inequality discussions consistently woven through the narrative.

In reading the goodreads reviews already submitted for this ARC, it seems like people proactively canceled this book either without reading or finishing it.

I thought there was a lot of nuance and humanity/ difficult decisions and discussions throughout the book and really enjoyed it.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

This book is not what I thought it would be based on the description. I thought it would be more of a light-hearted romance and it wasn’t. It went a lot deeper, speaking of racism, sexism and different political ideologies. I have a lot of confusion on how to feel about this book and the deeper meanings within it.

Finished ✔️ Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess
2.5 ⭐️’s
Publish Day: June 6th, 2023
Kindle Unlimited: No
Extraordinarily brave
Plain funny as hell
But I just felt like there was a lot missing
Yes, I’d recommended as this may be something someone else may like
#DeesReading #DeesRecs #DeesBookRecommendations #BookNerds #BookNerdProblems #BookNerdsUnited #BookProblems #BookProblems101 #BookNerds101 #Bookworms #BookwormProblems #BooksOfFacebook #DeeTheBookReviewer #DeesReadOfTheDay #DeesBookOfTheDay #DeesBookReviewsOfTheDay #BookReviewer #NewToMeAuthor #ReadOfTheDay #BookOfTheDay #CeciliaRabess #EverythingsFine #NetGalley

Why did you not market this as women’s lit?
Or even, could you imagine, if it had been marketed as a psychological thriller? I think this could have served the theme of the story so much better.
The writing style lends well to a thriller. Josh lends well to a thriller. He is just the right amount of toxic and cringy. Their toxic “relationship” lends well to a thriller. The political happenings lends well to a thriller.
Instead, you played with fire by upsetting die-hard fans of the romance genre by breaking the cardinal rule of romance:
There has to be a happily ever after (HEA) at the end. Or at the very least a happily for now (HFN). This book is NOT a HEA. The tenuous HFN is tossed right out the window at the end of this book. This is not a romance. It’s hardly even a love story! I really didn’t feel much chemistry between these two or that they even liked each other all that much! For most of the book they weren’t even getting along.
I believe the reviews on Goodreads make it clear marketing this as a romance was a mistake.
(Do not let the freaky anomaly of what Colleen Hoover did with “It Ends With Us” make you think you can get away with calling a book about a toxic relationship without a HEA/HFN a romance, when it is not.)

The publisher has done this book a disservice by marketing the book this way.

This is a decently well written story. This is a unique narrative. The writing style is different but again, the mechanical listing of occurring facts could be great for a thriller. This could be powerful. Make the reader uncomfortable by showing everyone a toxic relationship mixed with the realistic struggles of a Black woman in today’s world. Label it a thriller and make people see it as dark and twisted the way it should be seen! I mean, the ending would set you up to really sit and think about this story. And that would be powerful. But instead you will just anger most of your audience, and not in a righteous way.

As a romance, I rate this 1 star. As literally anything else: 3 stars.
I will not be posting a review on goodreads…I think the damage is done. Re-shelve this book and try again.

I wasn’t able to finish this one because of the content matter. Racism shouldn’t be a an ordeal you tackle in order to fall in love.

Her boyfriend was just racist, and she acted like it was will-they-or-won't-they star crossed lovers.

This was not the book for me. That's not to say that there weren't good parts that I did enjoy, it was just a lot.

I feel like there were three parts to this book: the experience of working in trade/finance; the romance; and the politics.

The work that the characters did at Goldman Sachs, and then later at a more independent firm, was over my head. It wasn't something I was interested in, though I did feel the struggle Jess dealt with to be taken seriously. Not only was she a woman, but a black woman, and the way she was treated was downright disgusting at times. From treating her as a secretary, not an analyst, not giving her work, or giving her work with no direction as to how to do it. Then, when she was able to take part with the "team", not getting credit for her work.
To an extent, Josh did help her and stand up for her. Not nearly enough though, and I found myself disappointed in all the times and ways he didn't say something, or step up. I was hoping for a "Hating Game" situation, and that wasn't what we got at all

The romance. When it was just them, I did like Josh and Jess together. They had cute moments, some of their banter was fun and funny. They truly do love each other, though there were so many times I wanted to be there clapping and shouting "COMMUNICATION!" There were so many times one or the other held back, not explaining the small things that were coming between them or upsetting them. Then small things turned to big things.
When they were apart, you could feel the way they missed each other. Jess shutting out Josh broke me a little, especially when he tried to be there for her. The way he didn't give up, even when she shut down and shut him out. It's hard enough to figure out what you want in life, let alone the added pressure of your parent dying. Jess found herself asking the question: was being in love and loved worth more than being right?

The politics. This was where the book really lost me. Their different stances, and the arguments it brought on reminded me of the movie "The Way We Once Were". If this is a movie you loved, then this book would be right up your alley! For me, it made me question why they were even trying. If they were so different, if they couldn't agree about their fundamental beliefs. If they couldn't see eye to eye; and didn't even seem to want to try.

I've seen a lot of bad reviews, and I think this book deserves more benefit of the doubt. It may not be for everyone, like it wasn't for me, but it deserves to be given a chance instead of judged before even being read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this digital ARC in exchange for a review.

I decided to prioritize Everything's Fine after seeing some interesting discourse about it circling on TikTok. While the Netgalley summary of this book really centers the story around unlikely allies found in the workplace, the marketing campaign for Everything's Fine seems to have really painted the story as a Romantic Comedy. Which... It is not. Unless you find microaggressions and racism as an amusing backdrop for a love story? Um...

Everything's Fine is about Jess, who is often the Only Black Girl in a lot of spaces -- growing up in Nebraska, in all her classes in college, and then in her Goldman Sachs job that she was forced to take in order to afford her life. In college, she has a "nemesis" of sorts - a conservative, white man named Josh who she would get into sparring matches with her in her Law class. Josh is the epitome of "devil's advocate"; but, despite this, he and Jess form an unlikely friendship that soon blossoms into a long-term relationship. But as the 2016 election rolls around and the racism in Jess's life begins to take a toll, the question of whether love is enough begins to materialize. I've seen this compared to Netflix's Purple Hearts (I never watched it), and I don't think it's that far off. Replace a soldier with a Libertarian Finance Bro and a Liberal white girl with a Black woman who somehow finds herself in near-willful complacency in every shift in her life, and then sprinkle in some The Hating Game energy! Yes, I know.

There are so many things to unpack with this book: from the multitude of awful racist and sexist vignettes (MAJOR trigger warning for an instance of DV), the inconsistencies in character for both Jess and Josh in how they react and navigate through said racist/sexist instances, and then the 2008 and 2016 elections parenthesizing the whole story. It feels, to me, as if Cecilia Rabess sought to write a love story between A Liberal and A Conservative, and then realized there was no ethical way to do so. And what ends up happening is a huge confusion about what the tone of the story really is: is it satire? Is it horror? IS IT REALLY a love story? The conclusion of the story provides no answers, which others have said is purposeful on Rabess's part. But with such a surface-level engagement of extremely tough topics and a character whose values are completely opaque, the ending is just really depressing.

Whatever the case, the marketing of this book is harmful and begs the question: WHO is this actually written for? As a Non-Black person of color, I have a hard time seeing this being written for Black women/other WOC who have been in Jess' shoes and hold the values that she supposedly does. Her actions throughout the novel feel so off-base, that she becomes an unreliable heroine - something that I don't think works at all.

In conclusion, I don't know if I can recommend this one. It was a fast read (I'll give it that) but left me feeling just confused and honestly worried.

The story was not what I was expecting. I had a hard time caring about Jess and Josh and really didn't care if they broke up or got back together. To me, it was a toxic relationship for Jess to be with Josh. Their relationship seemed purely physical. More time should have been spent on Jess and her father's relationship. Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an advanced copy. My opinions are my own.

An interesting read though I can see why early readers are finding it problematic. That said, read for yourself before judging .

I finished this a month ago. And I have no words for this book. Honestly. It is not only extremely offensive, it’s harmful. It’s underwritten. It’s underdeveloped. It’s fast paced at times but with unclear timelines. It is EXTREMELY triggering for Black people to read. And yet. And yet…..

Is the point of the book to show the fallacy of youth? To highlight that when we are young it’s easy to be taken by lust and good looks and gloss over the gas lighting, violence, and racism? Is it to show that everyone’s internal understanding of “fine” is different? Or that white mens belief that Trump’s racism and white supremacist rhetoric is not actually “that bad” and “everything will be fine” is harmful and scary and makes Black people question their every move? Is it about what actually makes someone Black, and what it means to “find” or “understand” your Blackness?

If it’s any of those things then this book completely misses the mark. Because none of that depth discussed above is actually in the book. Jess doesn’t change. She’s still a Black woman struggling to make it in a white world, while continually trying to separate herself from other Black people, including her family. Jess is part of the problem, but I don’t think she ever actually see it that way.

If it was about any of those topics or questions above, this book would’ve been a 5 star. But it never got there far. Never took a chance. Hides behind this “enemies to lovers” bullshit that’s actually harmful.

I wanted to enjoy this. I actually devoured it and read it so quickly. But it rarely goes deeper than the surface and ultimately could be a book where white folks can read it, feel good about themselves and say, “well Atleast I’m not Josh”. And that is going to be so harmful to Black folks.